Steel wool holder



7 May 21, 1957 G. ALFANO STEEL woor. HOLDER Filed 001:. 1, 1954 1N VEN TOR.

60s 74 5 /44 FAA a United States Patent Office Patented May 21, 19 57 2,792,583 STEEL WOOL HOLDER Gustave Alfano, Long Island City, N. Y. Application October 1, 1954, Serial No. 459,766 Claims. (Cl. -409) The present invention relates to a holder in general and to a holder for steel wool pads, in particular.

Steel wool holders which comprise a hollow body of resilient material and which are equipped with means for narrowing the entrance into the space formed by the hollow body, have been proposed before. It was believed that the means for narrowing the entrance to the hollow space is essential in order to prevent the involuntary removal of the steel wool pad from the hollow space. Other proposals have been made to provide on the outside of the hollow body a handle in order to provide a better grip on the steel wool holder and, thereby, on the steel wool pad. Yet, it has been found, nevertheless, that even a handle does not give a sufiicient grip on the outer face of the hollow body to work properly with the steel wool pad inserted in the hollow body.

It is, therefore, one object of the present invention to provide a steel wool holder which comprises a hollow body of resilient material, which body, however, lacks any means for narrowing the entrance into the hollow space and which, however, has means on its outer surface to provide a suflicient and permanent grip of the fingers on its outer face, thereby permitting efiicient work with the steel wool pad.

It is another object of the present invention to provide a steel wool holder which comprises a hollow body of resilient material, which on its outer face is equipped with either ring-like, spirally formed or dot-formed projections, which projections provide a very efficient grip of the fingers on the outer surface of the body.

With these and other objects in view, which will become apparent in the following detailed description, the present invention will be clearly understood in connection with the accompanying drawing, in which:

Figure l is a perspective view of the steel wool holder shown in operation;

Fig. 2 is a front elevation of one embodiment of the steel wool holder;

Fig. 3 is a top plan view thereof shown in Fig. 2;

Fig. 4 is a section along the lines 44 of Fig. 3;

Fig. 5 is an elevation, partly in section, of a second embodiment of the steel wool holder; and

Fig. 6 is an elevation, partly in section, of bodiment of the steel wool holder.

Referring now to the drawing and in particular to Figs. 1, 2, 4, the steel wool holder comprises a hollow body 1 closed at one end and open at its other end and equipped with a turned-over flanged portion 2 which projects around the outer face of the hollow body 1 over an appreciable portion thereof toward the closed end of the hollow body 1.

As clearly shown in Fig. 1, a steel wool pad 3 is inserted into the hollow space 4 of the body 1 and upon insertion of the pad 3 into the space 4 it is retained therein by gripping the outer face of the body 1 with the fingers of the person working with the pad 3.

It has been experienced, however, that in view of the fact that the hollow body consists of flexible or resilient a third emmaterial, as for instance rubber, the wet rubber surface does not provide a suflicient .grip on the outer face of the body 1 and the fingers may slide, therefore, on this surface. As a remedy for this drawback of the known structures, the outer surface of the body 1 is equipped with projections which in the embodiment shown in Figs. 2 to 4 consist of parallel ring formations 5, which ringformations extend over the greater part of the outer surface of the body 1. It has been .found that such ring formations prevented the sliding of the fingers on the outer surface of the body 1 sufiiciently to improve the working conditions with the steel wool pad.

Referring now to Fig. 5, it will be found that the embodiment shown in this figure is substantially identical with that shown in Fig. 2 and thus comprises a hollow body 1 which terminates at its open end into a turnedover flanged portion 2. Instead of, however, providing a plurality of parallel ring formations, in accordance with the teachings of this embodiment, one single spirally arranged projection 5 extends from the closed end of the body 1 toward its open end on the outer face of the body 1'.

Referring now to Fig. 6, which discloses a third embodiment of the steel wool holder and comprises a hollow body 1 which terminates at its open end into a turnedover flanged portion 2 in accordance with this third embodiment, the gripping means disposed on the outer face of the hollow body 1 comprises a plurality of dotlike projections 5 Experience with such structures has shown that these dot-like projections eliminate the possibility of sliding of the fingers on the outer face of the hollow body 1 while gripping the steel wool pad inserted into the hollow body 1 While I have disclosed several embodiments of the present invention, it is to be understood that these embodiments are given by example only and not in a limiting sense, the scope of the present invention being determined by the objects and the claims.

I claim:

1. In a steel wool holder, a hollow body of a substantial depth and of resilient material closed at one end thereof and open at its opposite end, the said body merging at its open end backwardly into a flared portion surrounding the said body for the greater part of its depth, the said body being adapted to receive a steel wool pad while the space between the said body and the said flared portion being closely spaced apart from the said body to receive the fingers of the user of the holder for gripping the steel wool pad in the said hollow body and gripping means disposed on and projecting from the outer closed surface of said hollow body substantially at least for the depth of said flared portion.

2. The holder, as set forth in claim 1, in which the said gripping means comprises a plurality of parallel and concentrically arranged ring projections.

3. The holder, as set forth in claim 1, in which the said gripping means comprises a spirally arranged pro jection disposed on the outer face of the said hollow body and extending from its open end toward its closed end.

4. The holder, as set forth in claim 1, in which the said gripping means comprises a plurality of dot-like projections extending on the outer face of the said hollow body.

5. In a steel wool holder, a hollow body of substantial depth, said body being of resilient material and closed at one end thereof and open at its opposite end, the said body being flared outwardly from its closed to its open end and merging at its open end backwardly into a portion flared outwardly from the merging end to the free end thereof and surrounding the said body closely for the greater part of its depth, the said body being adapted to receive a steel wool pad while the space between the said body and the said flared portion being spaced apart I closely from the said body to receive the fingers of the user of the holder for gripping the steel wool pad in the said' hollow body, and gripping means disposed 'on and projecting from the outer closed surface of the said hollow body substantially at least forv the depth of said flared portion.

References Cited in the me of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS D..152,048 Weiss Dec. 7, 1948 360,298 Hewitt Mar. 29, 1887 

